Agenda item

We the undersigned petition the council to The public wants to know the details of the investment decision process that Aberdeen City Council followed from the initial idea to vacate St. Nicholas House through to the award of contact to Muse/Aviva for the Marischal Square development that ultimately led to the council’s decision to deliver guaranteed annual lease payments to Aviva over 35 years for a hotel, retail and office space at Marischal Square. The Information to be provided should include, but not be limited to, the following: • The key stages of the investment decision process. • The qualifications, skills and experience of those tasked with managing and executing the process. • The documentation produced to support the decision. • The stakeholder engagement programme. • Effectiveness and relevance of each and every consultation process. • The advice given to the council regarding State Aid implications. • The steps taken to alienate the Common Good Land.

The council should present the information at a formal meeting hosted by the Convener of the Finance, Policy and Resources Committee. Sufficient time should be set aside for questions and answers at the end of the presentation.

Representatives from the following organisations and interested parties should be invited to attend:

City Centre Community Council;

Common Weal Aberdeen;

Reject Marischal Square Development campaign group;

Stop the Desecration of Marischal Square campaign group;

Any other campaign groups who opposed the Marischal Square development; and

The local press.

The Committee had before it the following petition which had been submitted by Mr William Skidmore:-

“We the undersigned petition the council to The public wants to know the details of the investment decision process that Aberdeen City Council followed from the initial idea to vacate St Nicholas House through to the award of contact to Muse/Aviva for the Marischal Square development that ultimately led to the council’s decision to deliver guaranteed annual lease payments to Aviva over 35 years for a hotel, retail and office space at Marischal Square.  The Information to be provided should include, but not be limited to, the following:  • The key stages of the investment decision process.  • The qualifications, skills and experience of those tasked with managing and executing the process.  • The documentation produced to support the decision.  • The stakeholder engagement programme.  • Effectiveness and relevance of each and every consultation process.  • The advice given to the council regarding State Aid implications.  • The steps taken to alienate the Common Good Land”.

“The Council should present the information at a formal meeting hosted by the Convener of the Finance, Policy and Resources Committee.  Sufficient time should be set aside for questions and answers at the end of the presentation.

Representatives from the following organisations and interested parties should be invited to attend:

City Centre Community Council;

Common Weal Aberdeen;

Reject Marischal Square Development campaign group;

Stop the Desecration of Marischal Square campaign group;

Any other campaign groups who opposed the Marischal Square development; and

The local press.”

The Convener explained the process and invited the lead petitioner to present his case to the Committee.

Mr William Skidmore and Dr Lorna McHattie spoke to the petition by way of presentation and explained that the purpose of the petition was to increase the level of public engagement with regards to the Marischal Square investment process.  The petitioners advised the Committee that they wanted to better understand the decision making process and the Council’s assessment of risk and what constituted best value to the tax payer.  The petitioners advised that they sought a high level meeting with key decision makers to address their concerns and provided a list of groups that should be invited and a list of indicative questions that would be presented to the said meeting. 

Stephen Booth, Property Estates Manager and Steven Whyte, Head of Finance explained that the decision making process began in 2003 when St Nicholas House was deemed to be not fit for purpose and they summarised the number of reports submitted to Council and its Committees; and highlighted the number of consultations and public engagement events undertaken in that time.  Further to this, they advised that the Council had followed the correct procedures and processes and whenever possible had released information to the public but explained that this was not always possible due to third party involvement as the Council did not exclusively own the intellectual property rights, and a number of reports could not be released as they were commercially sensitive.  The officers advised that market conditions would have a relative impact on the level of risk and explained that all capital investment projects carried a degree of risk but disputed the assertion that the Council had undertaken a full risk option as there were elements in place that mitigated the level of risk.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         to note that this decision process began in June 2003;

(ii)        to instruct officers to identify all relevant reports since that time and to issue all public ones to the petitioner, and to review those reports previously exempt to determine the extent to which they can be released and issue them accordingly;

(iii)       to instruct officers to respond to the remaining requests for information as a Freedom of Information request;

(iv)       to agree to take no action otherwise on the petition; and

(v)        to thank the petitioners for their presentation.